Second World War, but like the first, led to many deaths.However, not only killed soldiers, officers, and any innocent people who just did not fit to the Aryan type of appearance, the purity of which fought as German dictator Adolf Hitler was a tyrant.A lot of people died in concentration camps at the hands of cruel executioners.One of the biggest camps called "Majdanek" about it and will be discussed.
Order
concentration camp "Majdanek" was located in the suburbs of Lublin, Poland.It got its name from the Turkic word "area" (Independence).In fact, the construction of such camps began with the filing of Hitler, who gave the order to Heinrich Himmler, one of the senior officials of the Third Reich, to establish total supervision over the eastern territories seized by Germany.
On the same day, July 17, 1941, Himmler was appointed one of the leaders of the police - Odilo Globocnik - responsible for creating the structure of the SS and the concentration camps in occupied Poland.Moreover, Globocnik was responsible for the partial Germanization of Poland.Central to the eastern part of the occupied territory had become a concentration camp "Majdanek", located in the suburbs of Lublin.Construction of the complex was carried out by the prisoners themselves.
Ordinance on construction
official decree on the establishment of the camp was given July 20, 1941.That same day, Himmler ordered Globocnik announced during his visit to Lublin.The order states that it is necessary to create a camp that will be able to accommodate about 25-50 thousand people who, in turn, will be occupied by building institutional buildings of the SS and German police.In fact, the construction of the complex was entrusted to Hans Kammler, who held one of the leadership positions of the budget and management of the construction of the SS.In September, he gave the order to begin to build part of the concentration camp, which can accommodate at least 5000 people.However, some time later near Kiev was captured by an incredible number of prisoners of war, and Kammler changed his instructions ordered a 2 prison camp - "Majdanek" and "Auschwitz", designed for 50 thousand people each.
construction camps
Initially, the first camp was built on the outskirts of Lublin, near the cemetery.Not everyone liked this arrangement, and the civil authorities began to protest, after which Globocnik moved it to another area, about 3 km from the city.Then here came the first prisoners of concentration camps.
territory expansion
In November Kammler ordered to expand the camp, first to 125 thousand prisoners, and a month later - up to 150. A few months later, and this spaciousness was not enough, so it was decided to convert the complex.Now the "Majdanek" was supposed to hold up to 250 thousands of Soviet prisoners of war, whose number is constantly growing.However, calculations Kammler did not come true.Concentration camp "Majdanek" was extended by another 20 thousand people, and after that its construction was suspended.The creation of new barracks was attended by about two thousand Soviet prisoners of war, of which fifteen hundred were killed in November in connection with the terrible working and living conditions.That is survived only five hundred people, of which around 30% have already been disabled.In December, a construction joined by one hundred and fifty of the Jews, but as soon as this is an epidemic of typhus, and a month later she claimed the lives of all those who participated in the construction of the camp.
Structure camp
camp area was 95 hectares.All its territory is divided into five sections, one of which was exclusively for women.The complex consisted of many buildings, among which there were 227 workshops and factory production, 22 barracks for prisoners and two administrative.In addition, the "Majdanek" had ten branches, for example, "Plaszow," "Trawniki" "Grubeshok" and others.The inmates of the camp were engaged in the production of uniforms and weapons factories.
Prisoners
this concentration camp in Poland, according to official data, became a temporary shelter for 300,000 prisoners, of whom about 40% were Jews and 35% - Poles.Among the other prisoners had a lot of Russian, Ukrainians and Belarusians.On the territory of the camp was cruelly put to death about 80 thousand people, three quarters of whom were Jews.According to others, in the "Majdanek" lived half a million prisoners and the death toll has reached 360 thousand people.
the time of the establishment of the concentration camp he had to hold about 50,000 inmates, and in 1942 its capacity has grown fivefold.He had ten branches and own production.Prisoners were destroyed, since April 1942."Instrument" served the death gas "Zyklon B", which was also used in the "Auschwitz."And in September 1943, it launched the crematorium.
«Erntefest»
about concentration camps left many testimonies and documents, but can not be displayed on paper, how cruel was the "Operation Erntefest" held at the beginning of November 1943.Translated from the German word means "harvest festival", quite ironic, considering what happened.Just two days 3 and 4 November, police SS destroy all the Jews of the Lublin district, the prisoners in the concentration camps "Trawniki", "concepts" and "Majdanek".According to various sources, in general, it was killed from 40 to 43 thousand people.
It was a horrible mass murder.The prisoners were forced to dig their own trenches, located near the camp.The length of this ditch reached 100 meters, width 6, and the depth of 3 meters.On the morning of November 3 Jews "Majdanek" and all the nearby camps led to these trenches.The prisoners were divided into groups, ordered to lie about the ditches so that the subsequent prisoner put his head on the back of the previous one.About a hundred representatives of the German SS killed all the Jews shot in the head, walking along the rows.All the Nazi concentration camps used the most severe measures for its prisoners, but the execution was just inhuman.Since the bodies themselves in trench coats, one after another.The SS massacre was repeated as long as the entire pit was filled.During the shooting of the music he played to drown out the gunfire.When all the ditches were filled with corpses, covered with a thin layer of earth, and then cremated.
Kills
Some scientists believe that the concentration camp "Majdanek" was originally supposed to only hold Soviet POWs.Although documentary evidence of this version does not.Mass killings began here in a year after construction, and in 1943 this place has become the official death camp.Here, except for the operation "Erntefest", mainly used in the gas chambers.For poisoning, first used carbon monoxide, and later "Zyklon B".
camp's liberation
In 1944, Soviet forces managed to liberate "Majdanek".Concentration, photo which once again prove callousness of the Waffen SS, was immediately abandoned by the Germans, which, although they tried to hide the evidence of mass killings, were unable to carry out.The Germans are on site then tried to destroy the crematorium, which became the scene of the murder of thousands of people, but they do not have time to do it, because they had to quickly leave this place.In the summer of that year, troops of the Soviet Union managed to liberate the territory and several other death camps, such as "Treblinka", "Sobibor" and "Belzec" which were disbanded in 1943.
Conclusion At its core, the Nazi camps are no different.All of the device contrary to humanism and the idea that all people are equal.There can not exist "but."Though on any problem and can be viewed from different angles, but the extermination of thousands of people can not be justified by anything, even the fact that it was a war.Concentration - a phenomenon that existed not only because it was necessary to the Third Reich, Hitler's not personally ran into the gas chamber, in which participated the military, ruthless soldiers.However, not everyone likes such a situation, some were against it, but they had no choice, they had to be cruel to them not convicted traitor.The most humane of them even tried to help the prisoners, but it is a very weak excuse for their actions.However, about senior members of the SS, and we can not say that, because they deliberately sent to death tens of thousands of any innocent people, among whom were women and children.
